What is Exercise Induced Euphoria?
Ever wonder what is happening in your brain when you are in the euphoric state following physical exercise? I am talking about that intoxicating feeling of happiness and mental clarity following a good workout. In this article, we will dive a little deeper into the science of exercise induced euphoria.
In the past, you may have felt that aerobic exercise produced increases in mood, focus and your energy level. As described in this article, endorphins and other happy hormones produced in the pituitary gland as a result of challenging physical activity produce their effects by indirectly acting as a neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers within the brain. Endorphins get released into the bloodstream and are distributed all throughout the body. Here, they interact with receptors and produce the positive feelings associated with exercise euphoria.
Biological Purpose: Exercise Induced Euphoria
Why is your body releasing happy chemicals such as endorphins, dopamine, endocannabinoids, as well as all the other hormones involved with the feelings of euphoria following exercise? Firstly, they mask the pain associated with intense exercise. See, your body and mind sense that you are in danger as they are experiencing greater levels of physical and mental stress.
If you are in danger, it would not benefit your survival to stop and rest while until this pain subsides. Instead, your body up-regulates the production of happy- and stress chemicals and enters what is called the fight or flight response. The fight or flight response is able to temporarily mask the perception of pain to push you to a zone of safety.
A further major role, and likely the primary biological purpose behind the rush of euphoria as a result of increased endorphin release is to reward you for activities that promote your survival as a being. Your brain’s reward system recognizes your efforts and would like you to perform it again, to build resilience for your body and mind.
Meet Your Happy Chemicals
Endorphins
Endorphins are powerful chemicals primarily produced by your body’s very own pituitary gland, a small bean-sized gland responsible for regulating important functions such as growth and reproduction. When released, they go on a mission to mask bodily pain, relieve stress, and enhance pleasure. They can also lead to intoxicating feelings of euphoria. Endorphins are most commonly associated with feelings of joy following intense exercise sessions, joyful states that are commonly known as “runner’s high’s” or “exercise euphoria”.” If you would like to read more about endorphins and their effects on your body and mind, check out my very first published article.
Endocannabinoids
Your Endocannabinoid System is a complex network of cells that regulate your sleep, mood, appetite, memory, as well as fertility. They are produced by our body and ensure to keep bodily systems running smoothly. There are many natural ways of boosting your endocannabinoid system. Endocannabinoids interact with serotonin, as well as opioid receptors, helping to mask pain and create feelings of pleasure. One of the most well-known endocannabinoids are Amandamides.
Dopamine
From a biological perspective, dopamine is your happy chemical that rewards you for overcoming a serious challenge or gets triggered when you are about to meet a survival need (e.g. climbing a tall tree to grab a fruit, catching a fish when you are out fishing). It helped out ancestors to continuously engage in activities that promote dopamine-rewarding activities that promoted their survival. In order to increase its release, we need to make sure that the activity stays challenging (e.g. it has to be of significant intensity). One way of tricking your dopamine system in increasing your dopamine release is by turning your fitness journey into a game.
The Process of Euphoria-Generation in Your Brain
The very first feeling you will encounter into your workout is a feeling of satisfaction, decrease in mental stress and minor increase in euphoria as a result of an increase in endorphin production. Depending on your preparations, intensity, type, as well as the timing of your workout, this can occur early or later into your workout. Endorphins (which stands for “endogenous (self-produced) morphine”) in turn activate your body’s very own opioid receptors (the same that are activated by morphine and heroin).
Over time, your body will then produce increased levels of Amandamide, one of your brain’s primary endocannabinoids. They activate the same receptors as THC, inducing an even deeper feeling of relaxation. Once your brain recognizes increased production of endorphins and endocannabinoids, it up-regulates the production of Dopamine. Dopamine is your reward hormone involved in pleasure, lust, and addiction. If you have worked out properly, you can up-regulate the production of these chemicals, which can lead to an intoxicating state of euphoria.
Best Activities to Generate Exercise Induced Euphoria
Now you may be wondering what type of exercise, what exercise intensity, and what exercise timing is needed to take advantage of the mental benefits associated with the exercise high.
When it comes to running, spending 3/4 of your run performing moderate intensity exercise, and 1/4 of your run performing vigorous intensity exercise has shown to be good to promote the release of endorphins, creating the feelings of a runner’s high. If you are looking to get an endorphin rush from strength training, I recommend that you try out high intensity resistance training (HIRT).
HIRT is an effective strength training method that has gained increased popularity over the recent years. Workout typically last 20 minutes and due to the immense exercise intensity, should only be performed once to twice per week. Check out this article for more general information on what exercise parameters are right for you based on your fitness goals. If you are a runner and are chasing the feelings associated with a runner’s high, I recommend that you read this article.
Brain Changes Following Exercise
Many brain regions benefit greatly after being exposed to bouts of acute exercise. These changes occur after exposure of regular exercise and are typically only minimal if performed irregularly. When you are enjoying exercising more, you are more likely to perform it at higher intensities. Exercising at higher intensities, in turn, will then cause more significant changes at the level of your brain.
Different brain regions increase in their activity during and after exercise. These include, but are not limited to your nucleus accumbens, pre-frontal cortex, amygdala, as well as other important structures such as your hippocampus and your motor cortex. Let us dive deeper into each structure to understand what is going on.
Prefrontal Cortex
Your prefrontal cortex has a big role in your brain. It is responsible for primary executive functions such as planning, problem-solving, judgment, inhibition, emotional regulation, and initiation of movements. Regular exercise (particular high-intensity exercise) can improve these high-order cognitive processes. Your prefrontal cortex also plays a major role in regulating the activity of other brain regions, such as your amygdala. You can read more here about the effect of exercise on the function of your prefrontal cortex.
Amygdala
The amygdala plays a significant role in the regulation of emotions, emotional behaviour, fear control, memory consolidation and motivation. Regular exercise can help the amygdala become more efficient by improving emotional regulation, levels of motion, and preventing memory loss. Check out this source to find out more about how exercise can affect your amygdala’s performance.
Nucleus Accumbens
Your nucleus accumbens is an awesome little structure sitting deep within the brain. It is considered to act as the neural interface for motivation and action. Regular exercise and physical activity has shown to be able to increase the volume of this structure, suggesting that regular exercise can form positive habits (promoting intrinsic motivation, or motivation “from within”) and require less external motivators to initiate exercise. Besides playing a key role in the connections between motivation and action, our nucleus accumbens is also involved in behaviours associated with feeding, sex, reward, stress, as well as self-administration behaviours. Recent studies have also mentioned its involvement in exercise addiction.
Other Brain Regions
As you can tell from the information above, some structure’s functions overlap and are integrated. Other structures such as your hippocampus (your brain’s main area for memory storage), as well as your motor cortex will also benefit from regular physical exercise. When exercising, they increase in activity leading to neuroplasticity of the brain (i.e. when your neural networks are adapting to the stimuli they are exposed to through growth and reorganization). This in turn can lead to a healthier brain that is primed to keep releasing high levels of your happy hormones, keep mental degenerative disease away, overall resulting in an improved mental health.
Mental Health Benefits of Regular Exercise Induced Euphoria
Now that you know the effects of your happy hormones, as well as the effect of regular exercise on different brain regions. Let us now talk about the mental benefits that come as a result of this exposure. The more consistent you are with your exercise program, the more intense your mental health benefits will be.
Treatment for Anxiety & Associated Conditions
Repeatedly experiencing the release of endogenous opioids (your feel-good chemicals) can significantly decrease your anxiety levels in both the short-, as well as the long-term. They can help to better regulate the overproduction of stress hormones, provide you with greater levels of self-confidence, and prime your brain chemistry to be better regulated. This can help combat feelings of anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions in both the short-term and the long-term.
Improved Sleep Quality
Following a good exercise session, we are more likely to experience less feelings of stress and anxiety, both of which keep us up late at night. That in combination of feeling more physical fatigue from your workout will have you sleep on cloud nine. Improved sleep quality will lead to an improved immune system and better recovery from mental and physical stressors. To read more about the astounding health benefits of regular, high quality sleep, check out this book (highly recommended).
Health-Conscious Decision-Making
When you are feeling good and made a sacrifice to feel and be healthier, you are significantly more likely to engage in more health-conscious decision-making for the rest of your day. You are less likely to have a snack following dinner and you will be less lazy throughout the day. You are more likely to engage in activities that need to be done as you feel a greater sense of purpose and crave more of the addicting feelings of reward and accomplishment.
Other
There are many more mental health benefits to exercise. In fact, there are way too many to list and talk about in this article. If you would like to know more about the mental health benefits of endorphin-producing exercise, check out this article on choosing the right exercise parameters for you.
Get Started Now
The issue of long-term exercise adherence in the general population has been keeping doctors, physical therapists, as well as other health professionals in the loop for decades. The main thing to consider when creating an exercise program to address ones fitness goals is to set proper goals, make the exercise fun, introduce plenty of variability, as well as keeping yourself accountable.
The greatest mistake is that you can make right now is failing to get started. You may have just read an article that increased your intrinsic motivation, but unless you act on it by creating a plan right now in this moment, all this time was wasted. Browse my Blog Page and Subscribe to my Newsletter to stay in the loop when it comes to keeping exercise fun, creating workouts yourself that are fun, engaging and will propel you towards achieving your health and fitness goals.
Conclusion
No matter what age, race, sex you are, you will no doubt greatly benefit from the feel-good effects associated with exercise induced euphoria. One of the main reasons people do not get started is because they push it to a later date and then they forget about it. Start priming your brain to release more feel-good chemicals todayStart creating your plan now, even if its just by writing down your short- and long-term exercise goals. Ready for some euphoria?
*DISCLAIMER*
Prior to starting any vigorous exercise regimen, make sure to talk to your doctor and physical therapist.